Robert Swift has spent countless hours in the weight room, adding 40 pounds to his frame.

Robert Swift has spent countless hours in the weight room, adding 40 pounds to his frame.

Photo: Dan DeLong/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Sonics center Robert Swift estimates tattoo artists put in 120 hours of work decorating his body with new designs.

Sonics center Robert Swift estimates tattoo artists put in 120 hours of work decorating his body with new designs.

Photo: Dan DeLong/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Sonics' Swift sheds his skin

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In one swoop, Robert Swift's development as a man and a basketball player has reached its apex, at the precise moment when the Sonics are seeking a mature and productive center as a cornerstone of their future.

Quietly, as the Sonics franchise moves toward slow-simmering success on the court and uncertainty off it, Swift has rehabilitated his torn right anterior cruciate ligament in near anonymity. Not yet considered a bust because he was robbed of his opportunity to showcase his skills by the catastrophic injury, Swift has not played in an NBA regular-season game in 16 months, and he's hoping to make it to Oct. 31 at Denver's Pepsi Center with his rebuilt knee intact.

While many of his teammates were lying on tropical islands with umbrella drinks, Swift was begging the Sonics' strength and conditioning coach, Dwight Daub, to stay at the Furtado Center for more work. He arrived here Thursday at 11:30 a.m. as the Storm was practicing and worked arduously in the weight room while construction workers were milling around.

Swift ignored them, flipped on an AC/DC compact disc and went to work.

"It's been exactly the opposite," Swift said when asked whether he's had to be coerced to rehab. "There are times when things are tough at home or I just want to be here, and I have to beg Dwight to stay here and he would say that I was done and to go home. I sometimes have been working too much."

Swift has a 3-inch scar on his right knee as a reminder of that October night when he landed awkwardly chasing a ball in a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings. Swift was prepared to make a major contribution to the team last season; he had bulked up to 240 pounds and shook his timid reputation to stand up to the league's grown men.

Swift said the rehabilitation period allowed him to make the complete transformation from high school project to legitimate NBA player and develop more off-the-court hobbies. He is near a muscular 280 pounds after nearly living in the weight room the past nine months.

He has been cleared to play 5-on-5 and said he sees a considerable difference in how he maneuvers inside against bigger players. When Swift was drafted out of Bakersfield High in 2004, he was a legitimate 7 feet but had the demeanor of Opie Taylor, unsure of himself in a man's game. A series of tattoos along with his weight-room work has helped the 21-year-old establish an identity. No longer is he the gullible guy who appeared afraid to exert his will on opponents.

Now Swift looks imposing, as if he has 16 months' worth of dunks ready to unleash on the rest of the league.

"I have no problems right now. I am not worried about anything," he said. "I love playing. It seems like 10 years ago when I (hurt my knee) but it hasn't even been a year. It's over now. I am ready to play. No tendinitis. No minor setbacks. No major setbacks."

Rehabilitation from an anterior cruciate ligament injury is difficult because the slow recovery process can test one's patience. According to Sonics officials, Swift has followed his schedule perfectly, refusing to pass on painful knee exercises and countless hours in the gym but possessing enough discipline to stay away from the court and running exercises until he was instructed by doctors.

Two months before his 21st birthday the game was taken away from Swift, and he had to become a true professional to get it back.

"He looks great," Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo said. "He looks comfortable at 270 (pounds). And it looks like he's been living in the weight room. All of that weight is muscle and that's a good sign."

While Swift has seemingly made a remarkable recovery from a devastating knee injury, he still has several months before the knee will be completely sound. According to Denver Nuggets strength and conditioning coach Steve Hess, who worked with Nene Hilario during his ACL rehabilitation, the effects of the injury will linger for more than a year.

"I would tell the Sonics to be very patient," Hess said. "There are going to be times when the knee feels great and others where it doesn't. There are going to be some bad days, but that's just part of the process."

Nene, who tore his ACL nearly a year before Swift, missed 17 of the Nuggets' first 29 games with knee soreness but just one game after Jan. 2 and he averaged 15.2 points and nearly eight rebounds in the postseason.

The Sonics could only hope for such production in the middle. Swift has averaged five points in 63 career games, but photos from those days depict a skinny, underdeveloped, unsure player trying to adapt to the sophisticated NBA world.

Swift found a world outside basketball. He can't calculate how many tattoos he's received since his injury, but "it's about 120 hours of work," and he also began an exotic snake collection that includes a 10-foot python and a 14-foot yellow snake that is less menacing because it doesn't have teeth.

The opportunity is there for Swift to become a franchise cornerstone. That chance is not lost on him, and he's not going to tweak another knee in chasing that goal. He is going to methodically take his time, banking that the past 16 months have prepared him for a prosperous future.

"The way I look at it, I am back and healthy," he said. "I am going to come back 100 maybe 110 percent by October. This was a major setback and I turned it into a positive. I gained 40 pounds and I exceeded all of my weightlifting goals. I have worked hard to get back here, and I am ready. I'm ready."